Putting The World Right With Old-Fashioned Ways

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Sure, some old-time farming beliefs and sayings seem far-fetched today - but others are based on generations of practical experience. The 2014 Old Farmer’s Almanac (now available for pre-order at Almanac.com) puts a focus on old-fashioned ways. Strange, funny, or even disgusting, all are examples of what former folklorist and editor Maria Leach (1892-1977) called “the inextinguishable hope that all that is wrong in the world can somehow be put right.”

Putting The World Right With Old-Fashioned Ways

Planting:
• To make a plant grow, spit into the hole you have dug for it.
• Anything planted by a pregnant woman will flourish.
• Peppers should be planted only by a violent-tempered person, a red-haired person, or a person in a bad mood.

Pest Control:
• Scatter elder leaves over your cabbage to keep the bugs away.
• To make a scarecrow more effective, make its arms from hickory wood.
• Plant cucumbers while you are wearing your pajamas, on the first day of May, before sunrise, and no bugs will eat them.

Husbandry:
• Don’t talk about hens at mealtime, or their eggs won’t hatch.
• If a cow has indigestion, feed her an onion sandwich, stolen bread, or bread taken in silence from a neighbor.

Predicting the Crops:
• Sleet in February portends a good apple crop.
• March snow is as good as manure.
• Early thunder brings fine crops.
• A white Christmas means a good year for fruit.